Some were going from college to college submitting application forms

A brawl, perplexed students, long queues and absence of information signs were some of the sights witnessed at Delhi University on Wednesday.

Around 1-45 p.m. as the sales counters were being closed, the police were called in by members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) alleging that around six activists from the newly-formed students’ wing of the Aam Aadmi party had barged into Daulat Ram College and beaten up an ABVP activist, who had set up a help-desk to help applicants. “They have no presence in the students’ movements here, and are doing this in a bid to grab some attention,” said ABVP State secretary Rohit Chahal.

The AAP, on the other hand, issued a statement on behalf of their students’ wing, the Chatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti, stating that the ABVP had tried to remove their help-desks from Daulat Ram College.

Students still confused

With no display boards at any sales centre explaining the basic rules of admissions, many students appeared clueless of the process. The fact that the procedure is centralised and that the Optical Mark Recognition form is from the university representing all colleges came as a surprise to them.

“We have been going from college to college since admissions opened on Monday and we have been submitting the completed application form in every college,” said Micheal, resident of a nearby colony, who insisted that checking the university website or reading the newspapers were “not for him”.

When informed that all the forms are the same, regardless of the sales centre, his friend Pradeep, also from the same school, chirped in: “The names of the colleges were not written in the forms, so we thought that if we wanted to apply in one particular college then we had to physically submit them there.”

The fact that from last year the option of marking colleges at the application stage has been done away with and only the course option is available in the form also came as a surprise to many. “We stood in line and bought one form but I did not see any college option so I assume they gave me a wrong one, so I am waiting in line to buy another form,” said Tanisha, who was waiting in line with her friend Priyanka.

Both said they had attended private schools in Noida and had scored above 90 per cent. They also said that they did not read newspapers. “Why are they making us choose the course? It is a difficult thing to decide. It would be so much easier to just choose a nice college instead,” she said when informed about the procedure.

Several political organisations had set up help-desks in the colleges and were volunteering information to anyone who asked for it. “Many students and parents have asked me what course they should choose,” said Saket Bahuguna of the ABVP.